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ESL forum > Ask for help > The date in a letter!?    

The date in a letter!?



Lilia Laz
Tunisia

The date in a letter!?
 
Hi everybody,
 
In a letter,  can we write the date this way
 
09/04/2015
 
Or we must write it this way
 
9th April, 2015   Or   April 9th, 2015?
 
Does it depend on the formality of the letter? 
 
Thank you in advance for your clarification ;) 

9 Apr 2015      





yanogator
United States

I think it �s a matter of personal preference. In a VERY formal letter, I wouldn �t use 09/04

 

Bruce 

9 Apr 2015     



viccxx
Greece

And let �s not ofrget about the ambiguity the different style that Americans and Brits use with the dates...For Europeans, the date you wrote is April 9th, but for most Americans (correct me if I �m wrong) the month goes first, so 9/4 would actually be Septemember 4th.
So I always tell my students to use the format 9th April, or April 9th, to avoid that.
As far as I know for informa letters, the following formats are acceptable:
9/4/ 2015
9 Apr 2015
or 9th April or April 9th
you can even omit the year I think
For semi-formal letters, you never omit the year,
and for formal ones, I dinstictly remember this being the most acceptable:
Thursday, 9th April 2015.

9 Apr 2015     



Jayho
Australia

The Australian way is 9 April 2015 (no comma) as followed by Australian government departments.
 
 
With most correspondence being conducted digitally now, the date patterns are less rigid. It doesn �t really matter and it can really follow any format as long as the date is clear.
 
 

9 Apr 2015     



douglas
United States

viccxx makes a very important point though (especially in international business)--using just numbers can lead to expensive misunderstanding. 
 
An ex-student of mine once came to me with a problem. he had replied to a supplier �s deliver notification asking why there would be such an unacceptably long delay in delivery.  The supplier replied with confusion "I don �t understand why a 4-day delivery time is unacceptable."  In the end, my student had read the date in the European way (e.g. 07/05 = May 7th) and the supplier had meant the American way (e.g. 07/05= July 5th).
 
For this reason I always recommend using letters in some way to indicate the month.
 
Cheers,
Douglas

10 Apr 2015     



Lilia Laz
Tunisia

Thank you all for your replies ; )

10 Apr 2015